London MCM Expo: James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D

James Cameron's Avatar

Earlier on today the GodisaGeek team were invited down to the London MCM Expo to have a look at the games on show and gaze upon the thousands of cosplayers at hand. The latter was more funny than interesting and the former was rather underwhelming with the exception being James Cameron’s Avatar The Game.

Now that might sound like a bit of surprise because usually games based on or related to movies are not that great but Avatar throws a rather intriguing ingredient into mix, full stereoscopic 3D gameplay. All the previous footage I have seen from the games has all been the normal/standard stuff and I thought it looked decent but “dismissed” it as just another movie tie-in. Well today once I popped on a pair of 3D glasses and saw the game running in 3D, it made the whole package much more appealing. It is hard to explain everything in detail without showing you guys but trust me when I say the 3D visuals are very impressive. I will reserve judgement on the actual gameplay (it is third person based) for now and just focus on trying to describe what made the 3D feature so great. One word (and it is a key one I think) that comes to mind is depth, it is portrayed brilliantly. As your character trudges forward and you look into the distance, you actually feel the gap between you and that enemy in the far corner. Imagine the impact that has on how you play the game, if you really feel that distance rather than just seeing it then how do you react to your surroundings?! Just ask yourself that question. If your perception of depth is that much more real then surely it would have some impact on you reactions, well I certainly think it would anyway. The lush jungle surrounding of the section we were shown also allowed for some other really cool “3D moments”, the passing of leaves “over” my head and seeing the tail of a helicopter come “out” of the screen would be a couple of the more memorable ones.

During the gameplay demonstration we also had the chance to grill Kevin Shortt who is the lead writer on Avatar; he clearly seemed excited about the 3D aspect of the game. He explained the development team has been working very closely with James Cameron himself and the movie guru was thoroughly excited about a game based on his movies being one of the first game to introduce this new 3D technology. With this new technology being implemented it would be understandable for a separate development team to be working on the 3D side of things but Kevin stated that with Avatar that was not the case at all. The same team that is working on the standard game is also doing work on the implementing the 3D technology into the game. Clearly the team at Ubisoft is dedicated to creating a cohesive experience, something which should be applauded.

So yeah, all this 3D stuff sounds so cool doesn’t it?! I mean imagine the next Call of Duty or Halo game in 3D, it would make that gameplay experience that more cinematic and immersive. There is downside though to this 3D technology though and it comes in the form of high prices. To get a fully working 3D gaming set-up you would probably have to spend thousands of pounds. Once again, we spoke to Mr Kevin Short about these concerns and his response was “well the same was said of the current HD ready sets but they are pretty much the norm now”.  He is right in a way as we have to start somewhere to get 3D not only into our gaming but into our general home viewing too. I know many gamers (one of them is on the GodisaGeek team!) who initially were dismissive of HD gaming but when they actually saw a few games running in glorious HD they soon changed their minds and picked up a HDTV. 3D gaming is definitely on the horizon and if you want to step on board the train to the next level of gaming then start saving those pennies, I know I certainly have!